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Q:
Steering wheel off-center, counter-clockwise

asked by
Kimberly T
on
July 26, 2016

The steering wheel in my SUV is constantly off-center in the counter-clockwise direction. I can hardly believe it, but the dealer told me this is normal. I spoke with customer service and they suggested getting the car aligned. The dealer had already performed a 4-wheel alignment. Can you give me any ideas and suggestions as to why the steering wheel is off-center?

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It is very possible that something may not have been tightened down enough during the alignment that you had done and that something slipped out of place. Alignments are very sensitive and are measured down to the hundredths of a degree. If something is not tightened to specification, and it moves even a quarter of a degree, this is enough to change the alignment specifications and may very well cause your steering wheel to go off center.

I would recommend taking your vehicle back to where the alignment was last performed and ask them to recheck it. The alignment is the only thing that can cause the steering wheel to be off center other than if the steering wheel was removed recently and not reinstalled correctly. If you want to have this looked at by an independent mechanic, a technician from YourMechanic can inspect your steering system and let you know what should be done.

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